Math seems difficult because it takes time and energy. Many people don't experience sufficient time to "get" math lessons, and they fall behind as the teacher moves on. Many move on to study more complex concepts with a shaky foundation. We often end up with a weak structure that is doomed to collapse at some point.
One key fact about math is that it involves a genuine understanding of a structure of a problem. Intuitive or superficial understandings are helpful but not always enough.
everytime you learn an equation , first learn its derivation and then try to apply the equation to a real life problem you've had or read about. that's what helps me get over the hump when i'm stuck. very few times did my teachers derive an equation to put the equation into words that i can understand and write down a real life example of in words.
Before, I really hated math because I can't relate to it. But when I developed an interest in Astrology then in Astronomy, that's when I realized that Mathematics is not only the Mother of Science but for me, Mathematics is the language of the Universe. I believe that when learning math, it has to be personal to you. Well, that's my 2 cents. 👍
When my daughter was 4 years old, I had her doing story problems involving multiplication and division. I noticed right away that the stories that involved cookies she got the right answer. So, I think you're 100% correct. In order to learn mathematics you need to be able to relate to it.
Same thing for me with coding... Connect the two and it becomes meaningful to me. If you think about it, this was the difference between a teacher and an amazing teacher. The amazing ones had the ability to help us connect the dots.
this video was much needed, currently struggling in my final year in high school, don't know how im gonna cram everything in 3 months, but let's do it anyways !
This is so right on - I've shown this from the then highly controversial "math" program I developed in way back in my remedial tutoring days which also began k-4. Controversial because my preference was to start kids off whenever possible BEFORE they could even count to 30 with fractions as their FIRST math experience. Fractions were learned thru origami, geometry and Egyptian Rope Surveying using an Egyptain "tape measure" the kids make themselves along with a tall and wide triangular strung across and plumb line intersection leveling homemade tool . Take any piece of light rope and four different colored markers. Basically you take any made up unit of length like a domino works great and you lay it over the white nylon rope and with black mark away; at every 12 marks carefully, double mark, and write the next number of say 1 thru 50 for a 12unit x 50 tape measure. Then take another color and mark every third mark, another color marks every fourth and the third color marks every 5th (you get the 3-4-5 ratio from which you can make a perfect right angle and all kinds of other cool stuff.) You only do geometry with a compass and straight edge. You also make geometric optical illusions of curves-art by using only straight lines and have the kids slowly NO-pressure learn precision (very important) thru geometric coloring books AFTER teaching them the seven ways to hold and move a crayon or colored pencil. You create puzzles to solve and just let them play - they will - IF IF no pressure or expectations. Colored paper used and scissor cut into fractions. Show them the radius circumscribed onto the circle circumference to create the hexagon oh and how to divide a cherry pie into six pieces and also show to construct the pentagon. Thru play they will learn BASIC addition subtraction multiplication and division subliminally without any "instruction." To convince parents why your starting with fractions show this simple experiment explaining the first "math" (actually Arithmetic but just use the math word because THEY ARE learning thru relationship EXPERIENCES anyway). Get 10 kids and 5 donuts very unevenly raised, 20/10 is better and divide the kids into two groups from one group those kids do the cutting the kids from the other group do the choosing which half. Watch what happens, those kids with the least "math" instruction (BS) will not use the diameter in half approach but look closely and analyze the unevenness before cutting. Then the results most often will not LOOK anything close to half and half approaching equals BUT BUT instead weigh the two halves and see for yourself the closer results - that was some pretty advanced mathematical vector-approaching thinking for 5 year olds. Lay out simple buildings outside on the pavement using chalk and your Egyptian tape measure and have all kinds of fun, diagonals to check squareness etc etc. Do simple simple division and multiply problems geometrically drawn instead (NO paper, NO numerals) these kids will have NO problems understanding multiply and divide fractions like the insanity of normal instructions creating opposite sentences. "When one M's and D's whole numbers you get more and less but it is the opposite when doing fractions" - with colored paper cut-outs 4 pieces of 1/3rds = 1 circle plus a little bit (1/3). I took no money until after 6 months or so when the kids could do double digit times double digit FAST and accurate in their heads and divide two digit in to 6-7 digit also in their heads using ZERO multiplication tables but instead the Egyptian and/or Russian Abacus method of halves and doubling and the modified E pyramid of 1-2-5-7 instead of the standard E P of 1-2-4-8 because 5 times a number = half times ten (just add a zero) then add base number doubled to get the 7 result and from there - - then build TO the division "goal" - - easy to learn - in your head when taught the simple rules / tricks a quick mental cast out nines to verify results. Oh and when adding tall lists of say 3 digit or more numbers kids start from the LEFT and work right instead of the other way around and they do the whole think mentally with NO pencils and NO (BS) carrying - accurately to very impressive results. BUT by the book school-principles WILL often can mad - "you can't do that cause that is NOT the way its done regardless if you get the right answers in one-fifth time time - or less!! And boy does "this-kind" get mad. It all works believe me - try it yourself.
Well I really liked what you have written, I understood math pretty late as I always wanted some visualation, instead of just numbers on paper, word problems were my favourite, because I could visualize them, it would be superb if you could come up with video, it would be herculean effort for you but it will help many children for many years self esteem and save them pain, maybe even start liking math.
@@georgecarlinn6288 Yes that idea - to make a free multi-you tube course for free (no ads I get paid for) is on my agenda - tho I am very busy with other projects right now. You will read on many YT's claiming to teach Egyptian Arithmetic that their method of division (mentioned in original post) which utilizes using ONLY unit fractions (always a ONE on "top" thus 3/4 is the same as 1/2+1/4 is how to write it in Egyptian) anyway you will read that in many remainders you get wild results. Yes but on the plus side building to the quotient using UNIT fractions ONLY instead of decimals allows young kids multiple ways to get the same answer AND emphasizes what I believe was a major factor in WHY Egyptian math intentionally did not use a zero (other then empties for place value) because of their view that division is more important then summing or accumulation - that all numbers must relate to one. My research found that unit fractions were used until in the 1500's. Society needs to more concentrate on how it divides things (production) then how one individual can create large person sums (wealth) from unequal divisions OF whatever production. Is right? Yes or no? Try dividing a loaf of bread into seven servings using both the decimal system and the unit-fraction system - it shows the obvious practical advantage of the obvious choice - IF you had to actually cut a loaf. This explanation can be found in some of the older books no longer in print on Egyptian "Math". Final additional example - dividing the diameter of a circle into nine parts and making a square the side-lengths of 8/9ths parts IF you draw this geometrically and add a few Archimedes "Constructive Geometry" tricks that uses a Gnome-Square (which moves) you can further come incredibly close to finding the length of the circumference. The square a size of 8/9ths of the diameter of a circle works out to 3.16 if my memory's correct. Archimedes at least gave credit to the Egyptians for their EXACT theory of squaring a circle that can be achieved using Archimedes geometric tool that neatly trisects angles. Thus he wrote their formula for finding the area of a circle which, algebraically, works out EXACTLY - try it. Extend a diameter-ray past the circumference from the center the second leg of this triangle is the radius at 90 degrees to the ray and then from that point with your compass set to the length of the circumference as the hypotenuse finish-scribe the triangle - its area is the area of the circle - exactly NOT approximately. (Per ole Archy AND like I said it writes out nicely as a proof).
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I went from being a D- math student in high school to a teacher's helper in the tenth grade. I took a class called bonehead math by other students. Thanks to my math teacher Mr. Powell I got over my fear of math. Mr. Powell was special, in that he made me feel special by memorizing the formula for a magic square (where all the numbers on a line would equal the same number), right before the Rubix cube became a thing. Our School district was shut down after that so I didn't pursue math as an extended course.
Sad to know that the education system doesn't always fail, we just fail the education system by allowing schools with beneficial programs like that to fall to the way side.
I have never really understood y math is so difficult for people.....as a child I enjoyed doing math.I m in 10th r8 now and my favorite subject is math. this video helps us know why math is hard for the minds to process
I love this video. Thanks so much for putting it together. The illustrations are helpful. Learning math should not be painful. I totally agree that learning math you need the concrete objects to help you understand the concept. Dr. Montessori created the wonderful concrete materials that help children understand the concept easily.
Thank you for sharing. I could not do math in school and was seen as dumb kid. I realised that I could do math better than most adults when I started working. Maybe they did not teach me right because I am a super intelligent adult. I home-schooled my own children pre school and they super intelligent. Its not what you teach, its how you teach it. I am now studying early childhood education in my 50's.
I completely agree with what this video says, but also feel I've had a counter experience of math. From a very young age (6 or 7), I can recall visualising numbers in my head. By the time I was 8, I could "see" basic addition in my head. I still don't know how to explain it. This continued all the way up to calculus, where I found I could mentally deconstruct integrals and derivatives to more basic math. I've never been able to relate to "math is hard", and I've often wondered if something different happened when I started learning numbers or mathematics. To be clear, I'm not a math genius or able to calculate complex formulas quickly in my head. It's just the concepts that make sense and allow me to work with math without getting overwhelmed by cognitive load. Thank you for this video, as it presents some interesting research on how math is learned. I've always been keen to share knowledge and try to help others as I can, so this is really useful to have in mind.
Math is just another kind of literacy, something which many of my classmates still don't seem to notice... Now my frustration for them is much less than before but it still hurts occasionally... As a math enjoyer!
Watching maths videos on RU-vid helps me so much more than in school, I learn more than just the basics in 4 days rather than many months and I remember it for the rest of my life
I am really inspired by your video. The way you express the concepts is not just informative but paves the way for future academic research and studies. I really wanted to translate and re-record your videos in our native languages. That's how it can significantly impact large sums of teachers and kids and keep moving your legacy. Can I have some sort of permission to do so?
Sure! Go ahead! That’s why we publish under the Creative Commons and work with independent channel partners for Spanish, German and a few other languages.
I actually can learn mathematics from books and teachers. I also solve problems, but the reading first contributes a lot. I have been able to do this for as long as I can remember, so that's well into childhood.
Me too! Before taking Maths tests in high school, I would just read the reference book to make sure that I understood the concepts. I got an A each time. But I guess we would be the minority here.
I am so scared of math learning that I was even avoiding this video to open after reading title. finally today after a lot of will power preparation I opened this after many months.🙂
When I was learning addition, I was AMAZED at the equality "0 + 0 = 0". I was like "OH MY GOSH, 0 + 0 = 0 ?! Daaaaamn, I'm gonna LOVE math !" which I still do XD !
I learned addition at 5 by playing the Parcheesi board game. My family members wondered how I counted the steps so quickly. I also learned to read myself by watching my cousin (who í one year older and was in grade 1) doing her homework. I đi it to read stories when no one was there to read them for me.
Children also need to feel like thinking about knowing English and being better at everything for being a better child along with learning maths. It depends on various factors to be wanting to be a good child if not it is being a good child already. And what a child feels is what it will become to be in future life as a being a better child.
My daughter is GT. She is straight algorithm based. Give her the formula she works it. The abstract confuses her and makes her feel like why? I believe with maturity as she is only 7 she'll get the break down. She also was able to read before riding a bike before tying her shoes something she still struggles with. GT is sped on the opposite spectrum.
I think I'll have to agree, but I also think that the argument is bit shy. The problem of learning mathematisc can't be exausted in a few words, but perhaps I could hint to the fact that, if I could put it this way, the meaning of words like convention and definition cannot be preempted by mathematics and, likewise, not even the meanings of words like quantity and measurement: you always require ordinary language for explanations, so that two meters plus two yards can still be summed and it turned out that imaginary numbers are real ... I could go on and on.
Can you also make a video on how remember lots of math formulas plz. After I saw this video it was very nice and now........I am your new Subscriber Congratulations 🎊🎉
Hi Liza Shresta, welcome aboard! 😁 Thanks for the great suggestion we will have a look into it! Don't forget to also check us out on Patreon www.patreon.com/sprouts Cheers!
The best way to remember math formulas is to construct them yourself and understand where they are coming from (and of course using them a lot). In the courses in college I took they didn't teach the formulas. They just taught when to use them. It was awful. So when they were going over different problems and solving them, I was researching or trying to figure out some of the formulas on my own and I still remember most of them and can explain why they are the way they are. If you need them quickly then the best method I can suggest is the flash card method. You can search what that is and practice. The act of creating the cards as well as practicing with them makes remembering things extremely quick but it does not mean you'll understand the formula (which is still the best way to remember it or even quickly reconstruct it if you forget).
As a teacher's helper, I was a parapro, I was instructed to help with simple math problems. One day, I was surprised by a child who recognized numbers but not placement. This is a problem that I NEVER experienced as a child. I pulled a trick on an employee I worked with. I counted down from ten, with my fingers, on one hand, then added five from the other. Based on his response, children today don't understand how I got eleven. I waited on a known "Geek" the other day who had a thirty-seven dollar bill? He paid me thirty-three and thought that was enough. I didn't know what to tell him so I ate the difference (He was an acquaintance that I recognized as a friend).
Sprout Leader, At 4:21, "all" is a singular noun. "All they can think of is..." That is, in fact the idea you are trying to talk about, both to your children and to us about children's learning. Thus it is particularly odd for you to say "All they can think of are..." You are undermining your own point. Perhaps you have not really internalized it yourself. The whole is. The parts are.
Hi Muhammed Shafeeh, we are glad to know that, hope you find it useful! 🙂 Don't forget to subscribe and check us out on Patreon too www.patreon.com/sprouts. Thanks!
This video has same flaw with videos from 3blue1brown and alike. The most important change for math is REMOVE too short terms. Remove e, t, and anything that is single letter. Maimitaining the status quo is forcing anyonr to be memorizing. Maintaining the status quo is lengthening the explanation.
this is how math should be thaught in schools. numbers are only that, representations. thinking in terms of relationships is a much more useful approach
I always hated math and still have a phobia for it to this day, no thanks to from middle school into the end of high school. Always having to study for standardized test rather than understanding of the material as well as getting an answer to arithmetic right just for it to be counted wrong for not doing it the way you where told while (showing your work).
This was the "New Math" that was being taught in my day. As Americans, New Math was being introduced in the early seventies. America was learning about math, as opposed to just doing the exercise. The exercise was just following the signs that the problem presented. No integrity. New math taught Americans the dynamics that were necessary for the Integrity that math presents. If you understand education, you will recognize that the integrity of an idea lies in the dynamics and not the problem. If you accept destiny as an answer, then everything will fall into place.
I understood your idea just as well as when first learning long division (which only would have required a multiplication table chart at the beginning). All I learned about math is it's a bunch of properties, proofs, numbers, roots, theorems, signs, and symbols. Apply the rules in the right order and "just know" how everything works, you will get the right answer.
I think I know what you mean. When I was younger I was quick to pick up maths involved with money making situations. Now that I’m much older I’d like to learn more but it’s like I have a block. Nothing to relate the math to with something I am passionate about. I feel stuck.
I did well in math until 7th grade when my teacher did not allow me to submit my assigment because I came up with my own repeatable formula that always expressed the correct answers. She told us if formulas were repeatable they were valid…But she refused to allow me to use my own formula becuase it was not on her syllabus. It was a public scene in the classroom day and apparantly my BF started a rumor that I was a genius becaue of the argument I got into that day with my teacher…lolz….I basically said fugh math after that and never looked back. So now I can’t maths
5:22, use of the wrong term. It is 8 cubed not root. The root is going back to the base of a number, but the video shows the progression and multiplication of 8.
Hi carlos carrejo! Thank you so much for the positive feedback; it's what keeps us going! If you would like to support us in making our videos please subscribe or consider becoming our Patron at www.patreon.com/sprouts. Cheers!
Lots of play with real objects is great. You can follow our little school for little people on IG. We recently made a post about this. It’s @sproutskindergarten
Abstract symbols have no meaning for small children, and often for those who have "street maths". It's not a problem of language. Eight apples has meaning. "8" is empty of meaning.
It really came together for me in analytic geometry, and in relating math to the physical, like the area of a plot of ground. The one question I have about this idea is how much has it been tested, and what are the results? Does it work any better than traditional methods that were in use before Dewey started corrupting the system?
Some people do not have an aptitude for math and no amount of "teaching" will cause them to "get it"--ever. No clever "program" or technique or method or system will help them--period.
Kids are not taught to think, but memorize , because teachers don’t know how to think either. Often they are using a weird fingers trick to come up with an answer. When asked they don’t have a clue why does it work. Learn how to Turn a big problem into a few small ones. Then it’s like a game . 12 x 23 … 12 = 10+2. 10 x23= 230. 2x23=46. 230+46=276. You can do it in your head, this way it makes you think.
I never understood what really -5 is just looking at the numerical real nrs axis & knowing that nr are infinite... so I couldn't really do calculations on my own just if I learnt by heart some rules... when adding, when extracting, when multiplying and when dividing... ik + with + equals - & - with + is... am.. don't remember, or didn't really know
On the other hand, higher math often cannot be represented concretely in the real world. At some point, math learning has to jump from concrete to abstract.
I was interested in addmaths when I first time take the subject but I lose interest when the teacher say use his formula only and cannot use another formula other than his or get zero points in the Exam
In other words 'play based learning', which sounds good in theory, but requires sharp teachers to make it work. It is not uncommon for 'play based learning' to be a big play time with no further extension, under teachers who are not motivated.
Math "works" because we have an ordered universe. But that opens a "Pandora's Box" that most people would rather not gaze into. So for nearly all of us, math remains an abstraction.
